Vote yes to ballot proposals 2 and 3

October 30, 2013

We've already editorialized about four of the six questions - all of them state constitutional amendments - that will be on the back side of your ballot this Election Day, Nov. 5. Here we address the other two, which have not been gotten much attention statewide.

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Proposal 2 would give additional civil service credits to disabled veterans, which will help them get public-sector jobs after they return from the war zones where they've served our nation. Unemployment continues to be a problem for recently returned vets, and society owes these people a debt of gratitude. This amendment would fix a bureaucratic flaw that's been an unnecessary obstacle for some disabled vets.

As it is now, the state constitution gives a veteran 5 bonus points of civil service credit plus 2.5 points for a promotion. For a disabled veteran, it's 10 points plus 5 for a promotion. But what if a veteran applies for this credit and then is later certified as disabled - let's say for post-traumatic stress disorder, which is often diagnosed late? As it stands, that vet is locked in at the non-disabled credit, which isn't fair.

Vote yes to change that.

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Proposal 3 would let local governments, such as villages and towns, continue to exclude sewer system rebuilding costs from the debt limits imposed on them by the state constitution. They've been doing so since 1962, and this proposition would extend that for another 10 years.

Sewer systems require a great deal of expensive repair and maintenance, especially since most of them are very old - often more than a century. The bottom line is this: Nobody wants them to fail. They keep our communities sanitary and keep our water bodies from being polluted. They are in the care of municipalities that have to upgrade them occasionally, and that's already hard enough. There's no good reason to make it harder by imposing a blind, one-size-fits-all regulation.

We'd be happy if voters could make this exemption permanent, but as it is, we encourage you to extend it for another decade by voting yes.

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There seems to be little reason to oppose either of these. Indeed, for each of them, the League of Women Voters wrote in its Vote 411 Voter Guide, "The League of Women Voters of New York State could not identify any organizations or expressed opinions in opposition to this amendment."